And I took you by the hand, and we stood tall.

Alyssa and I had been talking about going to see a show for a while, and after we started dating, kept talking about one show in particular. It had been a show, a musical even, of which I could probably recite to you at least one full song. I could do this only because both Stephanie and Alyssa were obsessed with the musical since spring of last year.

Well, tickets to this show seemed like a great idea for a Valentine's Day celebration, so that's what I did. Now, unless you know who I'm talking about, you're probably asking, "what show could you possibly be describing?"

I'll tell you what show. It's titled Next to Normal. Now, before this past friday, I might have jokingly rolled my eyes while knowing full well that I probably would have liked the show. In fact, almost every show I've seen so far that I fell in love with has been a show I might have wrinkled my nose at, given it was mentioned prior (aha) to me seeing the show. Pride and Prejudice, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, even Les Miserables are all examples of this.

Next to Normal was no different. The show was just so amazing, I can't even really describe the shock. I knew I was going to like it, but I did not expect to love it. The singing was great, and although Alice Ripley might have sang a bit low at some instances, she was incredible in her role. The one thing about this show that really got to me was the emotion. This show communicated so much pain and emotional hurt that it nearly brought me to tears.

Twice.

I had to resist the urge, and believe me, it was difficult. I'm a sucker for a good tragedy. In reality, I hate all the sad stories we hear in the news so often these days, but presented from the stage, I see it as brilliant and I can't get enough. This whole show was just one thing after another, but they did it in such a seamless way, I didn't even think about it like that. Some shows that go for the continual breakdown sort of storyline just heap it on you like a pile of bricks.

The show starts. Then BAM you have this whole crap load of death and despair and depression pounding on the doors yelling "HERE I AM!", and it's almost laughable at times. But Next to Normal had every one of the D's I just mentioned and even more letters of the alphabet, and yet it seemed so real. I sat there thinking that this all happened. I guess the only true word to describe it was powerful. It hit me hard, and I loved it.

Personally, the Dad, Dan, is my favorite character in the show. He tries so hard to keep everything in order and expresses his love to his wife so deeply; he just throws everything that he is on the floor for her and everyone else to see. And in the end, it accomplished exactly the opposite of what he intended. Was his fatal flaw that he cared too much? Can one care too much? Dan has a lyric that says something along the lines of, "Who's crazy? The one who visits the doctor or the one who sits in the car?" He deals with so much and once all the screaming and crying is over, he's sitting in a bloodstained chair, in complete darkness, with only the company of memories/ghost of his dead son to "comfort" him. Simply an amazing character. And of course I told Mr. Somers this once I saw him after the show. I mean, why not congratulate an actor on having the best part in the musical, right?

Needless to say, even if I hadn't gone to that show yesterday, it was a completely perfect day, and I loved it so much. I am so lucky!

"I told you I was an actress, but then again, I also just told you that I always lie."

Tonight I saw two one act plays at Modesto Junior College. Both were good, and they made a good selection with picking one dramatic and one comedic. The comedic play was one about an American woman working for the government who visited a "Mexican Lot" looking to purchase a model of mexican in order to gain some professional color for a certain political dinner. It was interesting, and twist in the end was both entertaining and unexpected. It was also the first time I have ever really sat down and felt ashamed of being a white person watching the events that were happening. I felt like I should leave, because they were bashing both white Americans and Mexicans so hard, it was starting to get a little uncomfortable.

Even still, it was the dramatic play that really made me think. It was titled "The Dutchman", and I'm not sure if that was the pen name of the person who wrote it, or the actual title, because the playbill hinted at both. There are only two scenes and both take place on a subway train in New York. The only two characters that really matter in the play are a young black man named Clay and a young white woman named Lula.

Clay is just reading on the subway when Lula forcefully makes his acquaintance, and although striking both him and the audience as obviously insane, the two strike up conversation. Lula is an attractive young woman who gives off this air of suspense. You never really know what she is going to do and say next, leading to her being flirtatious and sweet one moment to being flat out rude and angry, yelling profanities and racial slurs at the same man she intends to sleep with. During these sudden outbreaks, white-masked passengers appear, disappear, and even gradually board the same train these two are on. Lula addresses them like she knows then, and even Clay, although disregarding then initially, strikes out at them during a rampage of his own that leads to him hitting Lula.

Now I don't want to go too much into what the two say to each other, because I wouldn't feel comfortable writing it down on a public blog, but let's just say the two end up hating, yelling, and even physically hitting each other so much that Lula eventually stabs Clay with a knife, killing him. She then orders the ghost like passengers to throw him off the train, and when they do, she tells them to get off on the next stop. Once she is alone in the train, another black man comes in and sits down, to whom Lula smiles, greets, and hints at the cycle repeating itself.

It was definitely a play about race, as the whole argument was about a few racial offensive words said here and there, but I'm still confused as to the whole relationship between the white-masked passengers and Lula. I don't even really understand why she was crazy. All I know is, once the lights came up, I looked at my friend who had come to the show with me and said "what just happened?"

In other words, it was an interesting show, to say the least.

*Contented Sigh*

I am home from an amazing weekend! Over the past three days, I was kicking with my drama friends up in Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The festival is a huge, 10 month long event dedicated to the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. Now just because the festival is named after Shakespeare, his plays aren't the only ones shown there. For instance, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was shown. A total of eleven plays were being performed during this event, which is amazing in itself.

Let's recap on the weekend, shall we?

Friday, June 18th.

After waking up at around 5:15 in the morning, I joined my fellow Dramies at Sheena's house. We left her house around 6 and hit the road for a very long, very interesting 6 hour car trip to Ashland. Once we arrived at the hotel, the guys loaded their stuff into the room, while the girls found out that the hotel screwed up our reservations and that they had to find another hotel to spend the night in. After that we grabbed some lunch at a place called The Munchies. We then went to see our first show, "Pride and Prejudice", which was really good and a lot funnier than I thought it would be! We ate some more good food at a Standing Stone Brewing Co., and then sat down again for a showing of "Hamlet" which, apart from a strange take on a certain play scene, absolutely amazed me! Tired from our first day, we walked back to our hotels chatting about the show.

Saturday, June 19th.

Waking up at 7 on vacation was not quite as much fun as you would think, but we did it. We got up that early in order to go white water rafting down the Klamath River. Waiting for the girls, we quickly ran over to Puck's for some donuts! I am a donut freak, so that made me really happy. Once the girls showed up, we got in the van that would take us to where we start rafting, and headed out. Upon arriving at the starting location, we realized how cold it was. It was absolutely freezing, but it got a lot better once we put on our wetsuits and started rafting. My raft consisted of Lish, Stephanie, two people we didn't even know, the guide, and myself. The rafting was super fun when we went through the level 4 rapids, and fairly quiet during the moments of drifting, which was ok, because it gave me time to appreciate the beautiful scenery. After rafting, we went back to our rooms to take showers, change into warm clothes, yada yada yada. We met back up with the girls and ate at a japanese restaurant called Kobe's and had some really good Yakitori (Teryaki Grilled Chicken), Miso soup, and California Rolls. Then we went and saw "Henry IV Part 1". The show was alright, but I think I would've appreciated it more if I hadn't been so cold and tired, considering that we were sitting in an outdoor Elizabethan Theatre. It actually started to rain on the actors! After the show, we walked back to the hotel, and as tired and ready to sleep as I was, it was probably the nicest walk of the trip.

Sunday, June 20th.

We woke up around 8:30 to pack for the ride home. I ended up being the only one who took a shower, but that was ok, because I wasn't about to be smelly for the whole day. Once we packed everything into the car, we headed over to a backstage tour of the multiple theaters at the festival, led by the lead actress of "Pride and Prejudice". I got some nice pictures and learned some really cool stuff, which was nice. We had lunch at a pizza place which I can't remember the name of and had some really good pizza while playing a couple games of pool. Our show for that day was "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", which ended up being probably my favorite show of the trip. Then we got in the car and headed back home.

Needless to say, it was a fantastic trip and I had so much fun. I was indeed sad for it to be over. I loved the area! The weather and the amount of trees in Ashland just blew me away. I was so glad I went and I'm gonna remember this for a very long time.

Drama Trip Round 2!

I am currently packing my quite small backpack for a trip with the Drama kids to Oregon! We are going up to Ashland to watch some shows and go white water rafting. It's going to be a great time and I'm super excited for it, but right now I'm having a bit of a dilemma.

You see, I have two bags to choose from that I can bring with me to Oregon. One is a normal, run of the mill backpack, while the other is a colossal duffle bag. I don't want to bring either, because one is too small, and one is too big. I need one that's just right. If I bring the backpack, I might not have enough room to bring enough clothes for the weekend, but if I bring the duffle bag, it'll be huge and we are trying to safe as much space in whatever vehicle we choose to drive up in. So I'll have to decide what to do with that.

Anyway, I'm stoked for the trip and I hope it turns out as great as it's cracked up to be! I've got high hopes for this one!